KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice President and the leader of parliamentary party of Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh has said that the looted money would be recovered from the thieves exposed by the Panama Leaks and Broadsheet.
Talking to media outside the Sindh Assembly here Thursday, he said that Broadsheet LLC, a UK company, registered in the Isle of Man in the Pervez Musharraf era, helped the then government and newly established National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in tracking down foreign assets purchased by Pakistanis through alleged ill-gotten wealth, according to a press release.
He said Broadsheet claims that it was established to enter into an Asset Recovery Agreement dated June 20, 2000, and did so with the then president of Pakistan, through the NAB chairman, for the purposes of recovering funds and other assets fraudulently taken from the state and other institutions, including through corrupt practices, and held outside of Pakistan.
Haleem said Broadsheet maintains that it was created to be a company specializing in the recovery of assets and funds, and was therefore engaged to trace, locate and transfer such items back to the state.
He said, a lawyer associated with the company earlier told media that the Sharifs were the “top target” of the Broadsheet investigation. Its contract was terminated in 2003 by NAB. Earlier this week, the controversy took another turn after the firm’s owner alleged that a person who claimed to be associated with Nawaz approached him in 2012 and offered a sum of money to drop the probe against him.
Haleem Adil said Moussavi repeated the allegations that a gentleman named Anjum Dar purporting to be Nawaz Sharif’s nephew turned up in 2012. I met him twice, once in Canterbury and then in London.” He said the individual offered him $25 million, and “He showed me a picture of him hugging Nawaz Sharif at home and sitting with him. He produced a tape recording as well – it was in Urdu so I didn’t know what it was saying.
Haleem Adil said that lot of politicians are delivering speeches against the government, some of them needs NROs and some other are not happy to see Pakistan a progressing and prosperous country. He said Panama Papers exposed Nawaz Sharif and his family and this was not our firm. He said similarly, Broadsheet is a British company. During Musharraf period it has got a list of about 200 Pakistanis who had amassed wealth outside the country and the name of Asif Ali Zardari was on the top of the list, who had deposited billions of dollars in the Swiss banks. However, Musharraf gave NRO to these people. Nawaz Sharif had also shifted to Saudi Arabia after getting NRO from Musharraf. As these funds were not transferred to Pakistan, the Broadsheet Company filed a case against Pakistan and we had to give them millions of rupees as fees.
Haleem Adil said Sindh leads whole Pakistan in corruption. He said we do not even to count millions and billions but they can count even trillion of rupees. He said not to speak Big Sain, the small Sain had made corruption of Rs3trillion in pension scam. He said Maulana Fazal has entered the arena to save the thieves of Panama Leaks and Broadsheet. He said these thieves are pressurizing the government to give them NRO. However, the PTI would continue to expose the corruption of PPP in Sindh and all looted money would be recovered from the thieves.